What about your life???

I am a realist. I think it's important to be honest. You can't help someone unless you know their inner thoughts - all those sticky nasty opinions that contribute to their personality and current state of mind.

Being a counselor gives me another viewpoint. I can allow the client to play the tape of "everything that's wrong in my life" once - maybe twice. If I allow them to play it more than a few times, I can actually watch a physical change in their countenance. Their entire body language will change. If I let it continue, it will take me twice as long to bring them back to a place where I can help.

It's important to be honest about your situation and problems. But it is vitally important to your health that you find positive, uplifting things in your life. Be thankful for the little things. No matter how low on the totem pole of life, there is always something to be thankful for.

I don't remember who it was. It may have been a passage about Corrie Ten Boom, but don't quote it as such. It went something like this:

"I am so thankful." A person laying on a lice infected bed next to her said, "What do you have to be thankful for? What can anyone in the concentration camp be thankful for?"

"I am thankful that today I have meat with my rice. And look...there isn't any dirt in my rice. Isn't that wonderful." She savored her rice as if it were a luscious meal.

"That's not meat, it's a cockroach."

"Today, for me, it's meat."

It takes great courage to find something to be thankful for in that type of situation. It makes me sad when I listen to the stories of others here in America. Here where we have so much and it has been said that even the poorest American has more than some rich people in third world countries.

Jerry Parker sent me an e-mail that puts it beautifully. I hope you will enjoy this unusual way to look at our blessings.

I dreamed an angel was showing me the glories of Heaven. Our first stop was a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, "This is the Receiving Section. Here we receive all petitions sent in prayer to God."

The large receiving room was terribly busy with many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

We continued to walk down a long corridor to the second section. The angel pointed, "This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them." I was amazed at the massive room and how every angel seems overwhelmed with work.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. Only one angel was seated idly doing nothing. "This is the Acknowledgment Section," the angel whispered. He seemed embarrassed.

"Why doesn't this angel have more work?" I asked.

"It's sad, isn't it?" The angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.''

"How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked.

"It's easy. Simply say thank you, Lord.''

"What blessings should they acknowledge?"

"If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... You are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.

If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 700 million people in the world. If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death you are envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still married ...you are very rare. If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm, you're unique to all those in doubt and despair."

"Okay, what now? How can I start?"

ATTN: Acknowledge Dept.: Thank you Lord, for all your blessings and for giving me the ability to share this message and so many wonderful people to share it with.

Good reading, now go out and bless someone today with words of encouragement!

God loves you,

Debbie

One of my dearest friends Laura sent the following to me. I hope you enjoy it. I believe it is the ultimate truth.

"Maybe you have seen this one before (it has been passed around). I’ve never seen an author noted, but thought it was good enough to pass on. "

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, Can't you see I'm on the phone? Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.

I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this ? Can you tie this? Can you open this?? Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!?

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe.

I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:'To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, 'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it. And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become.

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree. When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot see if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women. And God will say “Great Job, MOM!”

Thanks, Laura. I think we all needed this today!

God loves you,

Debbie

Lying Eyes

It was a terrible day. Limbs brushed against the house as the wind pushed trees back and forth. Rain pelted the windows and sent rivers of water washing down the sidewalk. The chill in the air found crevices in the door and sent chills throughout the house.

Little Bobby jumped down the stairs and slid into the breakfast nook. "Mornin' Mom! Isn't this a beautiful day."

Annoyed at his enthusiasm she poured her cup of coffee and snarled. "Bobby, haven't you looked outside? It's a terrible stormy day."

"Ah Mom, never judge the day by the weather. Somewhere up there...the sun is always shining."

Out of the mouth of babes.....

How many times have you let the weather change your feelings?

How many times have you let the grumpies take over because you didn't get your favorite parking place?

How many times have you had plenty to eat, a roof over your head and gas in the car - but because you don't have enough to buy a new outfit - you let yourself feel poor and out of sorts?

Our eyes are not able to judge circumstances properly. If we allow them to be the focus of our happiness we are often disappointed.

Don't let your happiness depend on what you see around you. Instead let your determination, your love for others and your faith that God will see your through anything - guide you and help you to see the eternal and all it's benefits. If we use God's eyes instead of our own, we will always see the sun peaking around the clouds.

God loves you,

Debbie